Three years after the launch of the Firefox smartphone Operating System to challenge the dominant platforms powered by Apple (iOS) and Google (Android), Firefox has decided to shut down its operating system.
The disclosure was made on Thursday by developers. The Firefox operating system is an open-source system which was created by Mozilla developer community but the operating system failed to gain traction in mobile devices.
Mozilla Developer, George Roter said in his blog post; “Through the work of hundreds of contributors we made an awesome push and created an impressive platform in Firefox OS,
“However, as we announced in December, the circumstances of multiple established operating systems and app ecosystems meant that we were playing catch-up, and the conditions were not there for Mozilla to win on commercial smartphones.”
Roter continued that Mozilla’s plan is to end support for smartphones after the Firefox OS 2.6 release, thereby withdrawing staff involvement as from May, 2016.
The decision to end support for the Firefox OS according to Roter was made as part of a push to pivot from ‘Firefox OS’ to ‘connected devices’” and would be focusing on developing open-source software for the Internet of Things — a category which includes everything from connected cars to lightbulbs.
He continued that “As of today, we have three projects that have passed the first gate including (a) smart TV and about a dozen more projects are prepping for review,”